Lauren the Ghoti says:

#22 – TIHZ_HO

“Running VM with OS X or with Intel Macs means more Windows sales to Bill and Mac users get to have a play on the other side of the fence. There is a risk to Apple that some Mac users find that Windows is not the Dark Side of the Force and do the math – I can get a PC much cheaper…more apps available…hmmm….why did I need OS X again?”

Well, I’ll bite on this particular piece of bait because I somehow think you’re at least semi-sincere on this point and one or two others… I said, s e m i . . . 🙂

You should really try to be more catholic in your tech reading, T_H. Cross-platform migration of users has always been one way, with an insignificant number taking the reverse course, for reasons ranging from unavoidable necessity to insanity…

The path, of course, is from Win to Mac. And in spite of your fascinating yet totally logic-free theory, in the real world, a major (perceived) obstacle to more people taking up the Mac platform was removed by Apple, quite deliberately.

Now buyers, both newbies and current Windows users can be assured that they’re no longer taking an irrevocable and expensive step in going to the Mac. They can hedge their bet, in case they change their mind about OS X, whether because they find they don’t like it or they can’t find an OS X app to replace an essential Windows app. So they buy a Mac, and cheerfully install BootCamp and / or Parallels Desktop and Windows.

But, and this has been the reported experience of all varieties of users, from computer-illiterates to computer journalists, they play with Windows for a while, but after a couple weeks at most, they notice they’re not touching Windows, they’re doing everything in OS X. And, the reports from Mac neophytes usually say, they are actually enjoying using a computer for the first time. Experience Win users, OTOH, usually are most chuffed about realizing just how much time, effort and paranoia that they no longer invest, since they don’t have any antimalware shit to deal with. And no small number say they simply remove Windows from their Mac, since they have tasted freedom and have no intention of going back.

That, m’lad, is the way it actually plays out in the real world. Which is why Mac sales set new records every quarter and why even hardcore PC magazines that once laughed at Macs now rate them higher than most Win-only PCs.

And of course the myths of Mac expense for both casual home users and all sizes of businesses have been soundly disproven by objective third-parties. You can keep repeating those myths if it gives you some kind of satisfaction, but when hardcore Fortune 500 consulting firms lay it on the line, the carping of lone individuals, fanbois and just-folks stuck in M$’s conformist rut doesn’t get it.

• • • • • • • • •

Since I’m betting that there will be an 8-core Xserve Real Soon Now©, to crib J. Pourn’s phrase, I’m waiting for that, and I’m gonna grab one as soon as it’s out. And, horror of treasonous horrors, I’ plan to install and run Solaris 10 on it as the primary OS and see how that goes. Put THAT in your pipelined instruction cache and smoke it… 🙂

Lauren the Ghoti says:

Just off the top o’ the head, for one – as a guy used to sitting at a tube all evening, guiding clueless newbies AND skilled computer-proficient professionals alike through the process of fixing their PC or Macintosh issues, as the case might be, I have more than a layman’s general impression of just how much time users of various consumer platforms actually have to spend keeping their computers functioning. Plus, I’ve owned them myself from the beginning, Mac 128k to PC, PC/XT, &c, &c… so I might have just a little personal experience to draw upon as to the nature and severity of computer issues and resolving them.

Users at all skill levels spend far less time – even though it’s admittedly narrowed since the ‘bad old days’ – on fucking around with the computer versus actually using it when they’re using a Mac.

Of course, I’ve known no shortage of people who have wasted absurd amounts of time getting some POS card or peripheral to function under Windows who were nonetheless utterly convinced that they had been wise to buy a PC. Because they were totally oblivious to what their time was worth – maybe it IS worth spending hours on the phone, over the course of days, talking to TS people, experimenting, rebooting, removing, reinstalling, &c, &c… rather than sticking the goddamn thing in, closing the box and pressing the power key and then going on with your work… but you ain’t gonna convince ME of it… Just because YOU don’t notice that the various apps you use have no consistency, that every one of them implements commonplace functions differently, requiring you to constantly have to remember different menu structures and key combinations as you switch between ’em – but 2 or 5 seconds here, another couple there, repeated countless thousands of times adds up to the proven fact that a PC takes more time out of your life than a Mac, to get the same amount of work accomplished. Always has.

When the time consumed by coping with more-frequent OS and app crashes, UI inconsistencies, and measures to nullify the effects of malware on a PC are added up – not to mention the frustration, anger and resentment they generate – they amount to a considerable fraction of the total time spent in front of a computer, rather than doing something else – or, for the same time spent, more work done.

TANSTAAFL. Save a couple bucks in cash. You always wind up paying it anyway, in time, effort or something else. That’s why the results of scientific measures of ROI and TCO are so often counterintuitive. Until the visible and invisible short and long term costs are tallied, you only think low initial cost is important. It’s only one factor, and many times not even the major one.

Those consultants and various other experts you disdain measure objective real-world performance, which often conflicts with individuals’ one-sided, selective personal impressions – like yours. 🙂

Macs exhibit significantly higher uptime in all environments. Mac users exhibit significantly higher productivity as well as satisfaction with their user experience, whether those two factors are related or not. And Macs exhibit lower support costs in time and money, again, in all environments. They are still unimpacted by malware. And their mothers don’t dress them funny. These are things that are proven facts, and have been for a long time.

Certain human artifacts inspire loyalty, others don’t. There are cults around Aston Martin cars, Rollei cameras, Vacheron-Constantin watches, mbl audio components, Cirrus airplanes – and also Macs. Of course, since cheaper (in $ / € / ¥ / £) alternatives to all of those things exist, the members of those cults are not informed, demanding, discriminating users, but dim, gullible fools. Right? 😉

[/sales pitch]

Lauren the Ghoti says:

pssst! pedro!

Look at this kewl flashlight I just got! No, closer!

Lauren the Ghoti says:

You’ve been into the cooking sherry again, T_Z, after I told you……

“People I admire”? “sold off the American dream”? Huh??

Uh, T_Z – somewhere along the way you got the people who measure computer uptime, count crashes and count support calls and suchlike confused with the Bush administration…

And you, Joao – I thought you knew to use a smiley when making a joke:

“And also this myth of the PC being so plagued with virus, malware and inconsistencies is, well …a myth.”

Oh. OK. If you say so. My mistake.